Featuring Jennifer Cohen Harper, Author and Founder and Director of Little Flower Yoga15+ effective, engaging activities to immediately offer your clientsImprove children’s capacity to focus while supporting their creativity and compassionReduce impulsive behavior and create space for good decision making5 key elements of sharing yoga and mindfulness with children

Many children struggle with impulse control, self-regulation of emotions, and maintaining focus. While some of these children may have a diagnosed disorder, others may simply be experiencing life challenges that they don’t have the skills to navigate successfully. Building these skills is possible! The tools of yoga and mindfulness offer both a way to handle these challenges in the moment, and a way to increase children’s resilience and ability to self-regulate in the future.

Using the framework of - Connect, Breathe, Move, Focus and Relax - we can help children move from a state of reactivity and anxiety to a state of balance and engagement. As we address the underlying causes of poor attention and self-regulation, you will learn practical ways to support your clients and students quickly and effectively.

The tools you learn in this course will give you immediate access to time tested and well researched practices that allow a challenging problem to be addressed in a holistic and strength based way. Give your students skills to regulate their own emotions, make good choices, stay focused, and ultimately live happier and healthier lives. Build relationships with your clients and improve your own well-being along with theirs.

This is a joyful workshop, taught by an engaging presenter. You will leave feeling inspired, empowered, capable and calm. No previous yoga or mindfulness experience needed.

Objectives:

1. Describe the relationship between brain, nervous system, and body, and how yoga and mindfulness can support effective integration and function.2. Recognize situations in which yoga and mindfulness practices will be helpful, and understand how to implement them.3. Implement yoga and mindfulness practices in an engaging, safe and effective manner.4. Maximize children’s capacity for focusing attention in a way that is strength based and supportive of their individual needs.5. Help children come into better emotional balance, reduce impulsive behavior, and support their capacity to make good choices.6. Identify how to increase your own resilience and effectiveness with mindfulness-based self-care.

Outline:

The Neuroscience of Yoga & MindfulnessSoothe the protective brain, engage and exercise the thoughtful brainThe brain-body relationshipRegulate the nervous systemManage emotionsExplore the relationship between attachment, embodiment and attention

Jennifer Cohen Harper, MA, E-RYT, RCYT, is a leading voice in the children’s yoga and mindfulness community, and the author of Little Flower Yoga for Kids: A Yoga and Mindfulness Program to Help Your Child Improve Attention and Emotional Balance, and co-editor of Best Practices for Yoga in Schools. She is the founder and director of Little Flower Yoga, a national organization based in New York, and The School Yoga Project, which brings yoga and mindfulness to schools nationwide, including directly serving over 5000 children a week in NYC alone. Jennifer is the board president of the Yoga Service Council and an active member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. In addition to her work in schools, Jennifer leads a well-respected children’s yoga and mindfulness teacher certification program, and provides therapeutic yoga classes to children and families. Her work has been featured in prominent publications including The New York Times, The International Journal of Yoga Therapy, Publishers Weekly, and Yoga Journal, and endorsed by thought leaders including Daniel Siegel, Sharon Salzberg and Congressman Tim Ryan. Jennifer is a talented presenter, offering powerful information in a practical, easy-to-implement format with warmth, humor and joy.